Doctor Who: All 40 Steven Moffat Episodes Ranked From Worst To Best
23. The Girl Who Died
Co-written with Jamie Mathieson.
The Magnificent Doctor. From the picturesque town of Christmas in The Time of the Doctor, the lush greenery of the solar farm level in The Doctor Falls, to the valiant Viking village in this story, the Doctor is at his bravest and kindest in all three instances when performing a duty of care obligation to those facing unrelenting enemies.
Capaldi's incarnation is regularly regarded as having a darker persona and is, in his own words, "less user-friendly". However this episode highlights just how effortlessly witty and downright funny Capaldi is in that unique Doctor way: trying to fool the villagers that he's Odin by unleashing a mighty yo-yo.
This is a constantly evolving and eminently involving Viking sci-fi adventure. Clara shows the importance of being the yang to the Doctor's yin which, with a little help from the electric eels, sparks off the inventive plan to outsmart the Mire. That sequence when everyone works together and Ashildr reveals, off-screen, her "monstrosity" bring about a childlike imagination as to how it will play out.
The mystery surrounding the Twelfth Doctor's familiar face is discovered in a practical way but has a powerful resonance behind it.
Yet the Doctor's good intentions of saving people has dramatic consequences for Ashildr, as shown by the hauntingly beautiful time lapse at the end where the joys of immortality eventually turn into the pain, despair and anger of always losing loved ones, and getting lost in the never-ending reinvention of herself.